March 11, 1940
by inigo1220
Summary: History Fic. Near the end of the Winter War, Finland makes a last attempt to convince Sweden to allow Allied Passage. Some SuFin and a tiny bit of cursing. Sweden's POV.


_ This takes place near the end of the Winter War (1939-1940), a conflict between the USSR and Finland. It was one-sided in the extreme in terms of men and equipment (in favour of the Soviet Union), but Finns held out from December to the middle of March. They did extremely well when one takes into consideration the poor amount and quality of their equipment and their enemy. Also, no other country helped them—at least not officially. The Scandinavian countries in particular had many volunteers fight in the Winter War and quite a few countries donated supplies (although many of those came too late). _

_ Towards the end of the war, the UK and France made plans for intervention, but could not get their soldiers into Finland without going through Swedish territory. The Swedish government refused to allow them to do so. On March 11th of 1940, the Finns made a final plea to Sweden and Norway to allow the Allied nations through their countries. Both nations still refused, and Finland ended up signing the Moscow Peace Treaty on March 13, 1940. _

* * *

**March 11, 1940**

"Tino?"

It was a question, not a statement because Berwald couldn't—no, he refused to—believe that that gaunt, clearly exhausted man in front of him was his Tino.

A shaky, almost painful smile crept across the Finn's features in response. The smile seemed to fly off of his lips, for it lasted only a second. But the smile fit. Because his Tino didn't have purple shading the edges of skin around his lovely violet-blue eyes. His Tino's arms and legs didn't shake with fatigue. His Tino held his head eye, eyes blazing with determination and defiance. And if this Tino had smiled in that exuberant, almost childishly happy and honey sweet way that his Tino did, Berwald's heart would have been ruptured much more thoroughly and quickly than any Soviet or German invasion* could have caused it to.

The Finn's eyes met his own for only a second as Tino responded quietly, "Moi, Berwald." Berwald felt frozen as he looked at them, remembering. Those eyes that had for such a long time held such an enormous amount of fear, now held nothing but an indifferent sadness that seemed as though it would carry through until the end of time. But Tino still stared at his general direction, unspeaking. Berwald bit his lip. He had never been good with small talk. It had always been Tino who had carried along the conversation, but now...

Memories flooded back to him. Days when despite the lack of an electric stove or even a fireplace sometimes, Berwald's heart had been warm enough to keep him from freezing. All of them, all of those precious moments were bathed in a buttery light as he heard a voice that he had not heard outside of his memory calling, "Su-san!"

He blinked rapidly. He knew from experience that his face gave almost nothing away, though right now, he wished it would. Berwald cleared his throat. "Why don't you sit?" he suggested, trying to keep his voice at a normal tone. Though unsure of what this particular meeting was about, he knew that it would not involve something particularly good. Especially not with Tino in the state he was in.

"Tino?" he asked gently.

The Finn was staring at him, but the look seemed to be far away. Suddenly, Tino's eyes focused and merely gave Berwald an almost insulted look. Then the expression returned to its neutrality. But neutrality, Berwald thought bitterly, was a joke.

"I need help, Berwald. That's all I'm here for."

The voice seemed to come from far away. It was flat, so flat that Berwald felt he could have walked across it without a problem. It was a voice that screamed defeat and unacknowledged hopelessness. And though it was _Tino's_ inevitable defeat and Berwald should have not felt any empathy for the man who had ceased to be his charge long ago*, the tone smacked him in the chest.

Tino never spoke like that. Especially. Not. To. Berwald. Berwald swallowed, no longer looking at Tino in the eye. So this is what it had come down to. This was how desperate the Finns were: they would dare pit Tino—Tino!—against him.

But torture was not going to work.

If I had a say in this, he wanted to scream, don't you think I would have come down to the Isthmus and beat the crap out of Ivan for even daring to declare war on you*! But he needed to keep calm, needed to comfort Tino, needed to get him to understand that he really did care for him even if he had no way of proving that connection.

"Tino." This time his voice was soft, a tone that he had never believed he could have mustered. "I... you know I can't do that." God, how he wanted to just hug Tino and take care of him, tell him that he didn't need to return to that wasteland Tino had once called beautiful. Berwald wished he could just take him under his wing again and protect him.

But things just don't work that way.

"I know." Tino's voice interrupted his thoughts. Berwald looked him in the eyes again and almost began trembling with sorrow. Tino's eyes were pleading. "But we're so close... Arthur and Francis... they, they promised to help, but they can't do it without you*. Please, Berwald, please..."

"Tino—" Curse his fucking government. Curse his status as a nation.

If Tino declares peace, then there is no way that Ivan can hurt Sweden*, Berwald, they had told him for the fourth time this morning. We know you love him, Berwald, but don't let feelings get in the way of rational thinking. You are Sweden, and you must do what's best for Sweden.

You must do what's best for Sweden.

"I—I can't."

Tino looked at him for a long time. They stood only about three feet apart, staring into each others' eyes, knowing that there should be a completely different context for this scene. The Tino bowed his head. "I know." His body began to tremble as his shoulders hiccuped. "I know, Berwald. I knew from the start, and I don't mean that in a bad way. It would not matter if you did, either way. I do not know why I was sent here. Arthur and Francis already told me that their governments don't really care about helping me." A bitter chuckle escaped the Finn's lips. "My only crime was existing. Funny, isn't it? How by simply being there I got caught in all this mess. And it's not even that I am player in this game; I'm merely a way of getting from point A to point B. I'd say that I am a pawn in a chess game, but I do believe that I am more of a square that pieces need to get onto." At this, he looked up. The tear tracks only made the grime on his face more evident. "But I guess I should have known. Tell me, I would like an answer as my first question is... well, out of the question." He gave another bitter chuckle.

"Anything," Berwald whispered, almost inaudibly. Though he stood a good 12 centimetres taller than Tino, he felt so much shorter.

"Did you... do you really still care about me?"

Berwald smiled slightly, and Tino cocked his head to left ever so slightly in response. Berwald stepped forward and opened his arms. Tino's lips twisted into a smile as he dove into Berwald's chest. He hugged him tightly, and Berwald whispered into his ear,

"I'm Konungariket Sverige, Tino. I, hopefully, always will be. But were I just Berwald, I would join you in a heartbeat." He then pushed Tino slightly back and unclasped something from his neck. A necklace with a small silver cross. He took Tino's hand, and pressed the cross into it. "You are a Nordic country, Suomi. Don't let anyone tell you differently, and don't you dare let that bastard make you any different. You are the West, and if there were ever anything you had to do to prove that, you have done it with this war. Your crime wasn't existing. Your crime was willing to stand up for the ideals that you and many others on this continent have held for centuries. Your crime was standing up for democracy, and though that may have led to—" he looked down at Tino's scarred face and swallowed with rage—"to this, I believe that you are the bravest of all of us. As such, your nation deserves the right to live and be free and always, forever, until the end of time, fly a flag with this cross on it. You may never return to me, and though I wish I could still care for you, you have proven to be nothing short of one of the best countries in the world. I'm proud of you, and love you all the more for what you've done."

Tino looked at him with the most adorable expression of adoration on his face, the sadness wiped away. He hugged Berwald for less than a second, then backed away.

"You'll tell them we fought bravely?" Tino asked, the determination having returned to his eyes.

Berwald nodded once. "Always."

"Adjö, Su-san."

"Moi moi, kultaseni."

* * *

* One of the reasons that Swedish government said that they didn't want to intervene was because they did not want Germany to react badly. During this time (and all throughout World War II), Sweden supplied Germany with iron ore, and, consequently, was able to remain neutral and unoccupied. According to what I have read, this was bullshit. Hitler didn't are too much about Scandinavia. If anything, he saw intervention in Finland as an opportunity to move the war to Northern Europe. In terms of Soviet invasion... read the last note.

* From the 13th century to the 19th century, Finland was a part of the Swedish empire. In 1809, Sweden lost it to Russia, so it has been a little over a hundred years since Sweden last had Finland under his roof

* Many people were pretty mad at the Soviet Union and saw the Winter War as the USSR throwing its weight around. Even though plenty of government officials agreed with their people, no one wanted to officially intervene. The Allied countries saw the USSR as an ally against Germany, so they did not want to risk damaging ties by helping Finland. Germany was still on good terms with the Soviet Union, so it didn't want to risk damaging ties either; however, Italy and Hungary (member of the Axis) weren't all that happy with Germany because he didn't intervene.

* As stated at the beginning of this fic, France and the UK began coming up with intervention plans towards the end of the war. However, their reasons were far from helping Finland. Their actual plan was more along the lines of occupying Swedish iron ore mines, and then possibly sending a few soldiers to help the Finns. The Finns were wary of the French and the Brits; they were hopeful, but knew not to completely rely on the idea of French and British intervention.

* The reason Berwald mentions Soviet invasion "rupturing his heart" has to do with the actual reason the Swedish government refused to grant the Allies passage and/or allow Swedish troops to help Finland (8,760 Swedish men volunteered on their own free will; clearly, they wanted to help.) Though they never said it outright, the Swedish government wanted Finland to declare peace because if they did, Finland would still exist and there would still be a land barrier between Sweden and the USSR.

* * *

BTW, if you'd like more info on this war, check out the book by William R. Trotter (_Winter War_). Almost all of my info comes from that book (and the Wiki page). And sorry for OOC Berwald at the end.


End file.
